Industry news

Google is suing the US government over claims that the search company was excluded a Department of the Interior (DOI) request for proposals to provide a hosted e-mail service.

The litigation comes a year after Google launched a campaign publicising organisations switching to Google Apps, marking increased rivalry with Microsoft.

Google and cloud service reseller, Onix Networks, allege the contract requirements make it impossible to compete against Microsoft, said US reports.

According to Google, the request for quotations (RFQ) for the contract - estimated to be worth $59m over five years - specifies that only the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite-Federal could be proposed.

Google's lawsuit against the federal government alleges Microsoft's success in the bidding process was pre-ordained.

The DOI's chief technology officer, William Corrington, allegedly told Google there would be no opportunity to compete because its product was not compliant with DOI's security requirements.

But, Google claims that the DOI declined to provide those security requirements or meet company representatives to discuss Google Apps security.

In its complaint, Google argues that - while Microsoft topped a list of 12 major software security providers for the number of security vulnerabilities and software patches needed to plug security holes - Google was the only provider on the list with no zero-day disclosures.

All parties involved have declined to comment on the pending litigation, the US reports said.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/11/02/243715/Google-sues-US-government-over-cloud-contract-exclusion.htm

More than ever, companies are finding themselves increasingly looking for ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies. One solution that is able to achieve both of these is e-Invoicing – the process of sending and receiving invoices electronically. However, as with every new process, companies need to know the facts.

From my experience as founder of OB10, the global e-Invoicing network, I have come across four common reservations about e-Invoicing from potential clients which I feel need to be addressed.

Myth One: “I’ve been told e-Invoicing can be a costly and difficult implementation process.”

Today, operating costs seem to be one of the first things businesses look to reduce when faced with a slow cash flow. There are a number of things that could be limited or cut altogether, one of which is the laborious practice of processing paper invoices. An answer to this costly procedure is e-Invoicing which not only speeds up the process, but will improve efficiency and reduce costs throughout the invoice to pay process.

The innovation of e-Invoicing can create a streamlined process that is implemented and managed with ease. An e-Invoice can be processed in a number of ways, as they can now be integrated with electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) workflow systems or uploaded directly into a user’s ERP(enterprise resourcing planning) or accounting system. There is therefore no need for big spending on new software, meaning the cost of implementation is minimal. The savings, on the other hand, are substantial, both to the supplier and the accounts-payable departments.

Myth Two: “My suppliers won’t want to move to e-Invoicing.”

An e-Invoicing project can only be successful if suppliers participate. Organisations may be concerned that suppliers don’t have the infrastructure in place to undertake e-Invoicing, or that only large suppliers can be supported. However, this is not the case. Suppliers have realised the increased reliability and efficiency that accompanies e-Invoicing in comparison to that of paper invoicing. Businesses are bringing their accounts payable and receivable departments up to date and choosing to convert from paper invoicing to e-Invoicing. All the while suppliers are enjoying the benefits of quicker delivery and speedier payment. At OB10, we handle the whole supplier enrolment process making the procedure of converting suppliers to e-Invoicing as efficient and pain-free as possible (for all parties involved).

Myth Three: “I can’t change to e-Invoicing as it is a legal requirement to archive a hardcopy invoice for account reporting”

In the EU specifically invoices can be stored electronically as long as they are easily accessible when required. OB10 provides an electronic archiving service called OBarchive which complies with local and international regulations and securely stores your transactions online so you can access them at anytime.

Archiving in this way saves time and costs. For example, in the UK, companies are required to store invoices for six years, for other countries such as Germany the requirement is for 10 years. Not only do they need to be archived, but also easily retrieved for tax audit purposes. For companies that receive hundreds of thousands of paper invoices, the costs and logistical burden on archiving and being able to retrieve an invoice, if required, is huge.

Myth Four: “I still have to make sure the invoices meet tax and VAT regulations.”

One persistent problem for the Accounts Payable team is ensuring that all invoices added to the system comply with the tax and VAT regulations of that region.

OB10 takes care of this process for you. We work closely with local tax offices and leading independent advisors to make sure all local and cross-border transactions are tax and VAT compliant. This saves you the effort and cost of dealing with the complexities of international tax legislation. It’s also important that your supplier works closely with independent tax auditors to ensure they are up to date and remain compliant.

Stefan Foryszewski, Co-Founder & Senior Vice President, OB10

The Commonwealth Games were a fantastic opportunity for India to showcase its confidence and modernity as a force to be reckoned with on a global stage. So what went wrong? The games certainly ended on a high, however it will be the number of well-publicised problems during the preparations and throughout the games which India’s time as host will ultimately be remembered for.

As India continues to vie for foreign investment, problems such as collapsing buildings, filthy accommodation, sickness, and allegations of corruption and incompetence all led to many questioning India’s credibility when it comes to handling high-profile contracts.

Where China had used the Olympics to demonstrate its excellent organisational capabilities, India seemed to confirm old prejudices. So did the negative publicity affect India as the number one offshore outsourcing and technology location?

Probably not. In the short-term, India may have lost some offshoring converts due to their fear of the unknown and the negative coverage will not have helped. In the long term, India is far too well established in its role as the number one offshoring destination for this kind of publicity to really affect it.

Global organisations also know the difference between the performance of the Indian Government in arranging the Games and the numerous successful Indian private enterprises.

Over the years, Indian companies have become synonymous with their ability to deliver. Many are even looking at onshore investments to give them true global delivery capability. For example, Intelenet Global Services, based in Mumbai, has 35 state-of-the-art delivery centres globally in the Philippines, Mauritius, USA, Poland and UK in order to handle its 400 million calls and 75 million tractions annually.

Any fears that individuals may have about the performance and reliability of Indian outsourcing can surely be put to rest with a select few case studies.

India will continue to attract international business due to its cost benefits while the availability of a large talent pool along with a fast turnaround time on projects will always appeal. Although derogatory press focused on wild snakes in the athletes’ villages along with collapsing bridges, it is here that the contrast with the professional, modern, results-oriented country can truly be seen.

As such, India will continue to attract many more successful outsourcing partnerships and a poor start to the Commonwealth Games should not affect that.

To succeed in today’s unpredictable economic times, business and technology leaders need to work together closely to cut out inefficiencies, reduce fixed operating expenses, and free up assets to invest in innovation. Unfortunately, years of mergers, acquisitions, and ad hoc growth have been acting as a barrier to this process, by saddling organisations with an overload of IT systems, software and data that squeezes the life out of IT resources.

As a result, traditional enterprise desktop environments are undergoing scrutiny because of the growing costs for support and maintenance, compounded by the necessity for frequent security patches and endless software upgrades. At the same time, end-user desktops have become increasingly difficult to manage as the explosion of remote workers continues to transform the client computing landscape. A recent analyst study from Forrester Research supports this view, indicating that within three years, there will be over one billion remote workers worldwide.

These users require immediate access to sophisticated organisational systems, from a diverse range of client devices. In addition, IT departments must contend with time-consuming client management tasks such as deploying and patching images and managing hardware transitions. They must also support the needs of all employees while diligently maintaining security policies. This is becoming increasingly challenging now that the majority of the workforce has stepped beyond the corporate environment.

In light of these demands and today’s budget constraints, many organisations are now exploring the possibility of outsourcing their virtual client technology. This approach helps simplify operations and get client assets under control through a fundamental change in perspective. If carried out correctly, it can replace managing physical desktops and hardware devices in various locations. Furthermore, it should also enable administrator access to data, settings, applications, operating systems, and IT policies that are uniquely associated with each user. This information, referred to as the user’s digital identity, resides in a central location on the network and allows individuals to access and work with their data from any supported device.

However, for this model to work effectively, an outsourcing provider must also have equivalent access to a company’s desktop environment. All applications, including custom or legacy applications, need to be tested and working at the service provider’s facility. This is not an easy task if the applications need to run on a different IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, the difficulty of application integration is often overlooked when businesses outsource their virtual client models. This is because the majority of businesses have custom or legacy applications that are critical to the business but not easily integrated into other IT environments. After all, not all IT departments are the same. Businesses can also incur unforeseen costs and delays trying to get these applications working with server-based computing technologies.

Simultaneously, and crucially, the organisation needs to establish the same level of security for the outsourcing provider that it maintains on the corporate network. Sending corporate desktop assets outside the protection of the corporate infrastructure, and in many cases outside of the country can have severe repercussions if customer data or company IP is compromised. Instead of maintaining entire PCs in the field with their own operating system, applications and configurations, virtualised PCs can be maintained in the corporate IT data center where individual user desktops can be more easily supported and securely managed. End users can then access their virtual desktop PCs from anywhere, from any system, with online access.

To conclude, organisations will only be able to outsource virtual client technologies successfully if they manage to strike the right relationship with their service provider and do not compromise their security or applications, which are fundamental to the running of the business. Only then will they be able to reap the rewards of outsourcing virtual client technologies, such as reduction unforeseen maintenance costs, improved service level agreements, and crucially, no delays when trying to get business critical applications working alongside server-based computing technologies.

The new site is located in the innovation centre of Hursely and will allow the companies’ associates to use cloud computing for their own offerings as well as providing the sales and marketing skills they need to be able to take full advantage of the technology.

Partners are able to access new IBM cloud technologies at the site to develop and test new cloud services, and work with industry experts to build a go-to-market plan. For example, partners can explore a range of cloud computing models and become cloud builders, application, technology and infrastructure providers, and cloud resellers and aggregators, depending on their individual business.

The companies can access the lab from any of the supplier's network of 38 Innovation Centers worldwide and work remotely with the cloud specialists at the Hursley site.

Pressure is mounting on support services group Serco after rivals distanced themselves from its “brutal” handling of suppliers on public sector projects.

The company has been ordered to explain itself by the Cabinet Office after pledging not to squeeze suppliers to deliver some of the £800m of savings the Government is demanding from the industry.

Despite the assurance, Serco – which runs prisons, nuclear facilities and ports for the Coalition – has demanded a blanket 2.5pc cash rebate from suppliers and threatened them with the loss of future contracts.

Capita, G4S, Carillion and Compass Group yesterday all sought to reassure their suppliers that they had no plans to make similar demands, leaving Serco isolated.

The Coalition is seeking at least £800m of savings from contracts with 19 leading Government outsourcers, including Serco, Capita and G4S, in 2010.

Serco’s chief executive, Chris Hyman, had agreed with Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, who is leading the Government’s efficiency drive, that the savings it presented would not come from suppliers’ payments.

However, a letter sent by Serco finance director Andrew, made clear that the company’s call for cash was directly related to the Government’s demand for contract savings this year.

A survey by BDO has shown that overly-complex regulation in the UK is causing international companies to look elsewhere.

Executives from 10 countries were surveyed and the results showed that only 28pc of businesses that expanded into the UK said it made their company more successful. The UK came last of nine countries in the category.

Kim Hayward, international liaison partner at BDO in the UK, said: "We may be kidding ourselves, thinking the UK is an easy place to do business. These findings reveal the opposite, with complex regulation cited as barriers to investment."

This comes as a blow to the coalition government who are hoping that inward investment will carry the country back to health.

Only 5pc of the businesses surveyed said Britain would be one of the countries they would target for international expansion in the next couple of years, compared to 32pc for China and 20pc for India.

Police ICT teams join forces

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police forces are to set up a joint ICT department, which will initially save the two forces a total of £350,000 per year – a figure expected to rise to around £1.7m within five years.

The two forces already run a number of successful collaborative departments, including major crime, firearms support and dog units.

Peter Conniff, chair of Bedfordshire police authority, said: "In light of the recent Comprehensive Spending Review and the need for both forces to address significant budget shortfalls, the financial efficiencies that will be generated by these further joint ventures are to be welcomed.

Stuart Nagler, chairman of Hertfordshire Police Authority, said: “Collaboration on key areas of administration and infrastructure, such as ICT and Pensions Administration, will bring huge benefits over and above the financial savings which are imperative at this time.

Data Shows European Outsourcing Market Remains Slow Despite Sharp Rise in Restructuring Activity

TPI’s Index, which looks at the state of the outsourcing industry, has published figures for the months of July through to September and shows that global total contract wins are at their lowest level for a decade, despite a significant increase in restructuring contracts.

The 3Q EMEA TPI Index, measures commercial outsourcing contracts valued at €20 million or more, showed that 57 contracts were awarded in EMEA in the third quarter, valued at just over €5B in TVC, a decline of eight percent quarter on quarter and 10 percent year on year. Globally, TVC fell by more than 20 percent both quarter on quarter and year on year to €11.3B.

In EMEA, the historically smaller Nordics and Netherlands markets provided pockets of strength as a result of a number of large scale restructurings signed in the first nine months of the year. The U.K. and Germany continue to show a decline in outsourcing awards, having only awarded half of the TCV year to date compared to the same period in 2009. However, Germany is expected to see a substantial increase in outsourcing activity by the end of the year.

Restructuring activity resumed the fast pace set at the beginning of 2010. In the third quarter the number of restructuring contracts increased by 80 percent quarter on quarter and almost 500 percent year on year. Meanwhile, new scope in EMEA is down by 45 percent quarter on quarter and 57 percent year on year. Globally, new scope TVC is down 20 percent making it the lowest result in more than a decade.

Duncan Aitchison, President and Partner of TPI EMEA, said: “We anticipate continued restructuring activity in the Region in the coming months as a natural force in a maturing market. Noting the number of contracts up for renewal, we expect 2011 to once again experience significant restructuring activity, although probably not as high as 2010. The prospect for large scale new scope awards in EMEA, however, is both far less predictable and more influenced by the continuing uncertainties in the global & regional economic outlook. ”

Total contract value for business process outsourcing (BPO) year to date totalled €4.3B in EMEA, an increase of 19 percent compared to the first three quarters last year and largely driven by the award of a few, larger contracts. Within BPO, most activity in EMEA is centred on Financial Services Operations Outsourcing, which has performed fairly consistently for the past three years. Industry-specific BPO is relatively strong in the region while the more traditional BPO areas such as Human Resources, Finance & Accounting and Contact Centre outsourcing remaining slow.

IT and business services provider Steria will deliver a major agile system development project to Statnett. The contract is valued at 12 million euros (NOK 100 million) and involves delivery of a community-critical system for ensuring the responsiveness of the national power grid.

Peer Olav Østli, Group ICT Director, Statnett, said: "We needed to change several of the core components in our IT systems. One of these changes involves the replacement of the national grid's regulatory and market system (LARM), which is used to secure the balance of energy supply and demand to millions of homes and businesses. We received several good tenders, but Steria's offer set itself apart positively very early in the process. We feel confident that we have selected a strong partner with whom we will work closely in the coming years."

The project will deliver a new platform which will replace the current system and modules, ensure effective system support for the end-users at the national grid, and enable Statnett to implement the changes to market systems more quickly and easily.

Lene Melfald, Director of System Development at Steria Norway said: "The first Steria team is already in place at Statnett's premises to prepare and plan phases of the implementation. The Elaboration phase will continue the next month and the project will be stepped up with the next group in the Construction phase starting end of November."